Sole rounding and channeling machine



May 26, 1953 c. w. BAKER 2,639,449

SOLE ROUNDING AND CHANNELING MACHINE Original Filed Feb. 12, 1949 inf/ n for C oru/zn h/Bczker Patented May 26, 1953 SOLE ROUNDING AND CHANNELING MACHINE Corwin W. Baker, Hamilton, Mass., assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Original application February 12, 1949, Serial No. 76,043. Divided and this application February 10, 1951, Serial No. 210,395

Claims.

This invention relates to sole rounding and channeling machines, and is illustrated herein as embodied in a machine of the type disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. v 1,030,606, granted on June 25, 1912, upon an application of F. H. Perry. Machines of this class are commonly employed for trimmin the edge of a shoe sole, after it has been laid and temporarily secured to the shoe bottom, preparatory to the outsole stitching operation.

The principal operating tool of this type of machine consists of a chopping knife which is rapidly reciprocated as the shoe is fed past it to make a series of overlapping cuts along the desired outline of the sole edge and directed across the latter from the bottom of the sole through the upper margin thereof. The shoe is supported against the thrust of the knife by a feeding mem ber, commonly called a feed point, which enters the welt crease and engages the upper margin of the sole or welt opposite to the knife. When the machine is in proper adjustment the knife and feed point just meet at the end of the cutting stroke of the knife.

However, all the cutting strokes of the knife are not of precisely the same length because of the slack in the joints of the driving mechanism resulting from the usual bearing clearances, and the wear which accompanies the ordinary use of the machine.

Consequently, the knife, from time to time, will engage the feed point making a shallow indentation therein. This tends to dull the knife. Upon being dulled, the effectiveness of the knife is diminished not only for this reason, but also because the knife is shortened, causing the rounding cut to be incomplete at the upper margin of the sole. Thus, until the knife isresharpened and readjusted, there may be a thin fringe or projection extending from the upper ridge of the sole edge at various points along it which should be trimmed therefrom in order that the proper guidance of the shoe during the outsole stitching operation will not be disturbed.

In view of the foregoing, the object of the present invention is to obtain a complete severance of the sole without leaving any fringe or other undesirable projection upon the sole edge, and also without necessitating the engagement of a knif with any support or other machine part, whereby any undue wear of the knife, and the above-mentioned difiiculties arising therefrom, are avoided.

A novel method of sole rounding which affords these results forms the subject matter of United States Letters Patent No. 2,607,059, granted 2 August 19, 1952 upon my application Serial No. 76,043, filed February 12, 1949, out of which the subject matter of this patent was divided.

With the above object in view and in accordance with one feature of the invention, the sole A rounding tool of the machine disclosed herein,

instead of being mounted for movement entirely through the sole material into engagement with the feed point, has a relatively shorter stroke such that the cutting edge of the tool stops short of the feed point at the end of its cutting stroke; and there is employed with such a tool or knife an additional cutter, mounted upon the feed point, for making an incision in the form of a continuous kerf or groove in the upper margin of the sole, along the same line of cut as that of the above-mentioned tool or knife, and of a depth somewhat greater than the distance by which the tool or knife failed to penetrate the sole. Accordingly, when one cut opens into the other the rounding out is completed. The kerf in the upper margin of thesole may be made before or' after the out which is made from the other side of the sole, but preferably, and as herein illustrated, the kerf is made in advance of the other cut by a spur mounted upon the feed point along the line of cut of the knife and in advance thereof.

The above and other features of the invention will now be described detail with reference to an illustrative machine shown in the accompanying drawings, andwill be defined in the claims.

In the drawings,

Fig. is a side elevation of a portion of the head of a rounding and channeling machineembodying the invention; v

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view, the section being taken horizontally atthe level of the chopping knife through the sole and the feed point; and

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the feed point, illustrating the relation of the spur thereon and the rounding out made upon the sole.

In the illustrated machine, which is the same as the above-mentioned Perry machine except as will be specifically pointed out below, I!) indicates the continuously reciprocating chopping knife, Hi the knife carrier, It the slideway in which the carrier moves horizontally, IS the bottom rest, !8 the oscillating support for the bottom rest, 20 the feed point, 22 the crease guide, and 24 the forepart guide. As usually constructed, the feed point has set into its rearward side a work engaging late 26 which is positioned on the feed point by dowels 28 andis secured thereto by a screw 30.

The novel structure provided by this invention consists of a cutter in the form of a spur 32, which extends rearwardly of the machine from a plate 34 which is let into the lower serrated work engaging surface of the feed point flush therewith. As shown in Fig. 3, the spur has the shape of a slim wedge, its cutting edge being disposed at the right hand side of the feed point, facing toward the right (in the direction of the return stroke of the feed point? and at the level of the chopping knife ID.

The operating characteristics of the machine will now be briefly summarized, but only to the extent necessary for an understanding of the present invention.

The bottom rest I6 is adapted to seat upon the bottom of a shoe S and hold the latter with the upper margin of the sole against the crease guide 22 or feed point 20, both of which extend into the welt crease of the shoe. The bottom rest i=6 and feed point 20 are oscillated together from right to left (when themachineis viewed from the front) to impart .a feeding movement to the shoe, .anddum'ng the remainder of one cycle-pf operation are returned to their original positions at the right hand ends of their strokes. The operation of the continuously reciprocating chopping knife 10 is so timed that its cutting stroke, directed toward the feed point,

"terminates when thefeed point is at them-id point of its return stroke. at this time the retum stroke of the feed point is momentarily interrupted, and thefeed point is quickly reciproe'ated toward and away from the hotton-"l rest so that the thrust of the knife upon the shoe, formerly taken by the crease guide, is resisted by the feed point when the-sole is cut by the chopping knife. Thus, during .each part of the re- .tm'n stroke of the feed point ;29 its .sole engagsurface is flush with or very slightly forwoa'd of that of the crease guide, whereby hack a-feeding action of the feed point its return stroke is avoided.

In the above-mentioned Perry machine the chopping knife, corresponding to the knife vIii disclosed herein, is so adjusted in carrier H) that it just meets the feed point at the end of its cutting stroke. In the present .machine on the other hand, the chopping knife 19 is coed, Justed on the carrier 42 that its out extends well into the sole, but not through the uppermargin thereof. That is, the chopping knife m at the end of its cutting stroke stops in proximity to the plate 3i andout of engagement therewith. as illustrated in Fig. 2. It is .now'evident that the knife in the present machine is notsu'bject to becoming dulled by :the feed ,point or any part thereof.

The severance of the chip C (Fig. 3) which is outside of the desired outline .Ounf the rounded :sole edge, is completed by making another out along the same outline directed from the upper margin of the sole toward the bottom thereof, these two cuts being of .such depth the-teach opens into the other. This cut or kerf :made .into the upper margin of the :sole is produced,

the operation of the illustrated machine, by

feed pointand Fbottom rest, and also during the interruption-in the return stroke of the feed point. The second cut by which the severance of the chip C from the shoe is completed, is made during each part of the return stroke of the feed point by the spur 32, this being a draw cut in the upper margin of the sole, which, like each cut made by the chopping knife, extends along the desired outlinecf (the rounded sole edge. The incision madehy the spur 32 is also -made slight-1y advance of the path of the knife I. and is of such depth that the cutting edge of the'knife enters into it near the end-of each cutting stroke.

Although the feed point does not bearupon the 'mpper margin of the sole with any .appreciable force during its return stroke, the sole margin is substantially in engagement with the feed point at this time. Accordingly. the. kerf formed by the 32 --continuous, and the plate 34 is in .such .a' -position that it suppoits a Jimitedlength of the upper margin of the :sole immediately adiacentto the kelf, thus insuring against any deformation of the upper margin of the sole as a result of the cutting action of the spur.

.I-Iaving thus described my'invention, what I claim as newand desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a sole roundingmachine, a member arranged. to support the upper margin of a shoe solo, a tool opposite to said member for rounding theedge of the sole, said tool being movable to bring its cutting edge into proximity to said member whereby an incomplete rounding out is made .across the sole edge, and a cutter mounted upon said member, said cutter .being constructed and arranged to make a kerf in the upper margin of the sole into which said tool penetrates atthe end of its cutting stroke to complete the roundingcut across the sole edge.

2.111 '.a.-. so1e rounding machine, a feed point movable through opposite feeding and return strokes .andarranged to engage the upper map gi of a shoesole, said feedpoint .havinga spur for making ahead in theisaid upper margin during said return strokesalong .a line to whichthe sole is .to be rounded, and .a tool for rounding the edge 10f the sole along said line, said tool being arranged to cut through thesole from the bottom thereofinto the kerf made by said spur to complete the roundinglcut across the sole edge.

3. In a .sole rounding machine, a feed point arranged to support the upper margin of a shoe sole, .2. chopping knife opposite to said feed point and movable into proximity thereto to make a rounding-cut across a part of thesole edge, and aspur mounted upon said feed point along the line of cut of said knite and in .advancethereof tormalu'ng akerf in the upper margin of .thecole into which the rounding out made by said knife extends to complete [the rounding out across the sole edge.

4. a sole rounding machine, a member arranged to support the upper margin of a shoe sole, said member being movable alternately through a feeding stroke in one direction and a return stroke in the opposite direction, a chopping knife movable into and out of proximity to said member between successive feeding strokes thereof to make a rounding out across a part of the sole edge, and a cutter mounted upon said member along the line of cut of said knife, said cutter having a cutting edge facing in the direction of the return stroke of said member and arranged to make an incision in the upper margin of the sole into which the knife penetrates at the end of its cutting stroke,

5. In a sole rounding machine, a member arranged to support the upper margin of a shoe References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 449,247 Hadaway Mar. 31, 1891 940,725 Plant Nov. 23, 1909 

